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1. What is a stormwater user fee?

A stormwater user fee is a charge for stormwater services provided by the City to all residential and non-residential properties in the service area. The service area is all properties within the Warner Robins limits. The revenue that is collected is a user fee system such as a SW Utility can only be utilized for provision of stormwater management services.

2. What is the stormwater user fee charge based on for a property?

The stormwater user fee charge is based on the amount of impervious surface on a parcel. Impervious surfaces are typically manmade features on a property that cannot absorb rainfall including rooftops, driveways, sidewalks, parking lots, etc.

The square footage of impervious surface on a property has a direct correlation to the stormwater runoff characteristics for the parcel including runoff volume, velocity, discharge rate and pollutant concentration. Increased runoff volume, velocity, discharge rate and pollutant concentration place a greater demand on the City drainage system to safely and efficiently convey runoff from the parcel.

As such, one can deduce that larger parcels with greater amounts of impervious area will be charged a higher user fee based on the relative demand placed on the City's drainage system and the increased service level provided to that parcel.

3. Isn't the stormwater fee just another tax?

No, a stormwater user fee is not a tax. Although the stormwater user charge is an additional fee to residents and businesses for stormwater services, it is not based on the assessed value of a property like a tax. Furthermore, all the stormwater user fee revenues must be spent on stormwater and drainage related issues whereas General Fund Tax Revenues are not subject to such restrictions.

4. What if I have a detention pond or some other stormwater control on my property to reduce the impact of stormwater runoff on the city's drainage system?

Customers can apply for and secure credits against their stormwater user fee charge by following the procedures outlined in the SW Utility Credit Manual.

5. How did the City pay for the cost of stormwater management before now?

The City has traditionally paid for the costs of managing stormwater runoff by allocation a portion of property taxes to the stormwater management program.

6. Why not continue to fund the Stormwater Management Program (SWMP) with property taxes?

The cost of managing stormwater runoff has significantly increased in the past few years. As a result, more resources are needed to continue to meet the needs and priorities of the City's SWMP. In order to fund the future SWMP, the City will either have to raise taxes and reduce other services to "free up" existing tax revenues, or establish a stormwater user fee system. Typically, home owners provide a majority of the property tax revenues. However a majority of impervious surface area in a community is typically associated with non-residential properties. As such, an increase in property taxes will likely not be an equitable way to apportion the SWMP cost to the customer base. The SW Utility apportions the SWMP costs in an equitable manner to the parcels that place the greatest demand on the City drainage system and SWMP.

7. How will the stormwater user fee charge be calculated?

The city has developed a detailed rate structure that apportions costs to properties in a fair and equitable method based on the relative demand (or amount of storm water runoff contribution) that a parcel places on the city drainage system and SWMP. Customers' user fee bill will be calculated based on the customer classes. There are the basic customer classes, residential and non-residential. Non-residential customers are referred to as non-single family residential (NSFR) customers. NSFR customers have a parcel-specific bill based on how much impervious surface is associated with the parcel. The impervious surface is associated with the parcel.

The customer will be billed $4.25 for each 3,000 square foot increment of impervious surface (or portion thereof) per month. For example, if a customer has 63,000 square feet (sf) of impervious surface, the bill will be $89.25 per month (63,000 sf / 3000 = 21 x $4.25 per month). Residential customers are billed a flat rate based on the class of residential development that they reside in. Customers with traditional detached housed on individual lots are referred to as detached single family residential (DSFR) customers. Those customers that live in condominiums, town homes, duplexes, triplexes, etc. are referred to as attached residential (AR) customers. Finally, residents who live in manufactured homes are referred to as manufactured home (MH) customers.

DSFR customers will receive a flat rate monthly bill of $4.25. AR customers will receive a monthly bill of $3.06. Finally, MH customers will receive a bill of $1.57 per month. The bills for AR and MH customers were developed based on the average impervious surface area of an AR or MH residence compared to the average impervious surface are of a DSFR residence. The lower fees reflect the smaller impervious area footprint of a typical AR or MH residence.

8. Is anyone exempt from the charges?

Unlike property taxes, no property is exempt from the stormwater user fee charge. The exceptions are those properties that are Georgia Department of Transportation roadways, underdeveloped properties (i.e. no impervious surfaces on the property) and those properties that do not ultimately discharge stormwater runoff to the City drainage system either directly or indirectly.

9. What will be the frequency of billing and the billing mechanism?

The stormwater user fee charge will be added to the existing monthly Public Utilities bill provided by the city to its customers for water, sewer, gas and sanitation services.